Lagging for herms plumbing

[Matt in Birdham]

I'm looking to insulate some of my herms plumbing, as I have a lot of T sections, compression fittings, taps etc and I think I am dropping a degree or two during the recirc, especially with the cold weather (I brew outside).
Ideally a removable solution (so probably not one of the adhesive tapes). Any suggestions? Is the shiny, thin stuff really equivalent to "33mm of polystyrene"? (seems quite a claim).
Also wondered about lagging the pump, or at least the stainless head (TD5), but I wouldn't want it to overheat. Does strike me as a bit of a heat radiator though - so the lagging would need to be able to handle quite irregular shapes.
I know I shouldn't say this but it would be quite nice if it looked good(ish) as well

[irv]

that silver bubble wrap isnt very good insulation used on its own, and it is no way anything like 33mm of polystyrene, probably more equivalent of 4mm of bubble wrap.

http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blo ... ubble-wrap

[Matt in Birdham]

that silver bubble wrap isnt very good insulation used on its own, and it is no way anything like 33mm of polystyrene, probably more equivalent of 4mm of bubble wrap.

http://www.greenbuildingadvisor.com/blo ... ubble-wrap

Thanks for that. Yeah the claim certainly did seem implausible! They are obviously spouting the same garbage over here as in the US.
I think I'll just try with some bog-standard split foam lagging to start with and see if that improves things. It would be really interesting to know how much temp I lose during the recirc, but hard to measure without probably another two probes on the circuit. I get the feeling it might be quite significant in cold weather though, as the metal fittings certainly get very hot to the touch (and there is a lot of them now) The stainless pump head in particular has a large surface area but I worry a little about it overheating if I were to insulate it.

[Kev888]

Yes, the shiny bubble-wrap only performs so well if it is installed creating a cavity/air-gap for it to work in conjunction with. By itself, the insulation value isn't that great so wrapping it around stuff will help but not as much as a decent layer of closed-cell foam pipe insulation.